Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft ? charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate ? but you think the collector may not be ? contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

I called a lawyer after I was threatened. I have been getting calls at work home and email.I have asked for them to send me an address and I will pay as they refused to work with a debt reduction company. The email was poorly worded, sounded like a foreigner wrote it then proceded to quote the miranda law incorrectly. When I responded to send an address the response was "Have a good time in Jail with your attitude" What a joke.

Yeah this idiot tried to tell me I have a returned check or something-funny thing-haven't had a checking account in 15 yrs!! Nice try though!! HAHA OH and if you do get this idiot on the phone, he HATES cussing!! I just kept calling back and calling back, just like they do to me and cussing at him!! BOY did he hate that!!! LOL

I received a call from Dale Thomas who transferred over to someone else ( who rattled his name and never clarified to me). Said I owe money ( which I have already paid back to the correct company) and told me if I did not fax over evidence within 60 minutes they would file in court. When I told him I did not have the document with me at work, he said I could pay $ 50.00 to hold filing and he would give me 48-72 hourse to produce document. How funny to pay for extension. I just hung up. I have reported Goldberg & Maxwell to the State attorney's office in Texas. To this date,  I have never received any papers from them.

they called my uncle first and i called them back. he was saying that i had a payday loan out from 2008. i don't recall any such loan. i asked him to send me an email with the info in it, he did. it looked fake. my mom called and said my grandpa from ohio just called her and told her the sherriffs office is looking for me and my husband, for what i don't know. has me worried..should i be, or is this probably a scam also???

Yes hes very rude and how funny he told me his name is timothy howard. Threatened me with check fraud. I called the harris county check fraud division. Statute of limitations is 2yrs. When i called him back i told him. He got frustrated.

Called claiming collection for debt. Refused to mail letter verifying debt. Said I had to pay 500 now or face 4,000 in legal fees. Asked person to verify the law office exists, but person became angry, starting yelling at me, and said she see me in court, and then hung up. I've filed complaint with FTC and a fruad alert with Equifax (to prevent them from attempting to access my records).

Call came from 2144141036 and 1037. Message was to call 4144314674.

Same threats as the rest of you.

Have any of you by chance had to fight off National Credit Works LLC? I'm wondering if they have sold info since they were shut down or moved from NY to Wisconsin....

Yes, Lisa I received the same message from this lady and she told me the same thing.  I know that this is illegal because if I feel that you are making a threat to me, your company can be fined for every threat that they make to me or anyone else.  I know the law because I used to work as a third party collection rep and I know that we could not any type of threats like these or we would be fired.  So I know that this is a scam because someone called looking for a friend of mine and they used the same number wanting to do the same thing to her.  So please do not give in to their tatics.

They are calling me telling me I needed to send a Green.Reloadable Card from Wal -Mart to them or they would freeze all of my assets and my husbands assets. They also said that I had to do it within 3 hours. Pretty sure that this is not legitimate.

so would i

hi what was the outcome? they just called me at my job and said i have until monday to pay 500.00 or i will be servered with a warrant. the girl on the phone was actually sort of nice, but this is about an unauthorize pay day loan that was put in an account that was unactive with only a few bucks in it. as a result payments were taking out until the account negative by then it was to late and i closed the account. they said because i closed my account that i committed fruad and that they will have to arest me this monday if i dont come up with 500 bucks.....not only that when they called my job they did not even know who they were speaking with when the gave me all the information, how embarrassing this would have been if it was all said to a co worker.i spoke with an anisha fox who then gave me an officers name lisa fisher who will be handleing my warrant with the county when i asked which police department she was with she just said with your local county. has anyone been arrested yet from this. how can it be check fruad when it is not even an actual check?

I recieved a call from this number and didn't answer it the first time they called.  I decided to call back out of curiosity the person I was connected with was not rude at all and explained the situation to me. I was able to make payments on a debt that was an over sight from 2007.

This is a total scam folks!!  I have filed bankruptcy...twice now due to years of medical bills.  I had a small payday loan out many years back and filed bankruptcy.  They are calling and harassing me at work and threatening to call my co-workers extensions and my boss.  They actually DID fax an employment verification form to my employer and described my picture on facebook and had the last 4 digits of my social security number.  This IS A HOAX!  

I called my attorney this morning and here are the facts:

It is FEDERAL LAW that they have to send WRITTEN PROOF that you owe the debt.  Period!!  If you continue to get harassed you can call an attorney and file an action against them under the FAIR DEBT COLLECTION ACT.  Please look this up folks...you have rights!!!  Get informed!  DO NOT give them any of your personal information even though it appears they already have it.  It is a scam.

Yes, I received my first phone call on May 23rd,2012; Mr. Michael Barnes was slightly rude as he constantly reiterated 'how much' he (and CMG), attempted to contact me. He was unprofessional, and hardly had my past dealings with this Payday company correct, nor did he send any copies of said transactions.  I smelled a  rat right away, and now see why his calls gave me stress.

I just called him back (left message on his machine), and suggested he stop the calls--after I informed him of the sheer number of complaints I read--as a result of investigation of both CMG, and Goldberg & Maxwell LLC. I also asked was the company bonded in my state, then expressed my intentions to contact the Atty General...and participate in a class-action suit.

I will stay connected here in case of further action against these calls. Good luck everyone.

My caller ID read "MILWAUKEE GOLF" I answered thinking it would be a potential Customer. A woman's voice said : "I have an important message about your mortgage" (I have NO mortgage!) - (and what does a Golf course have to do with Mortgage??) They are Crooks. I will report them.

I had a phone call from 414- 431-4647 they left me scary messages so i call them back the guy's name was thomas anderson... they told me they received my brankuptcy papers and that they can't take them, they told me they been following me at work and home and never can't find me.. the guy said I would go to prison for fraud and he can report me to inmigration. I was really scared he said he would do an out of court settlement with me and I promise to call him back, but instead I called bankruptcy court, credit bureau office and a lawyer. turns out what they did was illegal, the guy called me again and I told him I knew my rights and that I sent those messages to bankruptcy court and credit bureau, also I hired a lawyer to start a civil lawsuit against them, which I am planning too. I couldn't eat for two days I was under stress because of these people and i believe they should be stoped!!!

do not pay them any money, they caused a lot of stress on me too.. you are protected by the fair debt collectin practices act... file a complaint in the credit bureau against them... I promise they won't call you or do anything against you.. they use treats to scare people away and get their money, this is a scam

This Business is not BBB accredited
Goldberg Maxwell LLC
Phone: (888) 853-3610
2316 Delaware Ave Ste 350
Buffalo, NY 14216
http://www.bbb.org/upstate-new-york/Business- ... lo-ny-235967985

I keep getting phone calls from 414-431-4514, and his says his name is Michael from Goldberg and Maxwell, and he immediately starts yelling about a supposed debt, and they also have the last 4 digits of my social ...yelling and screaming at me and even threating me.

Ok, everyone this company not only called me without providing anything more than a case number yet they took it upon themselves to contact my co-workers.  I spoke with Debra Loring who would not provided any information but when I told her about contacting my co-worker and explaining there is an active chapter 13 filed since last year she simply said, "I will forward this on to the courts."  at which point she hung up.  

I logged on to the Attorney General's office under consumer protection and called them.  I was told to contact the Secretary of State (for your state) and search their business name.  Goldberg Maxwell must by law be bonded in your state to preform collection practices.  When I learned they are not bonded in Texas I further filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Fair Debt Collection Practices (FDCP) both were done online so they can begin an investigation.   Turn the tables on them, don't take it take the time to let the organization in place to police these debt collectors do it for you.  Hope this helps

call 716-310-6664, he the reason all this happen....ask for joe bella...if hes not f****d up or robbing u, he will be able to answer all your questions on how to collect on fake debt !!!

The caller said that he had been trying to reach me to settle a pay day loan in 2007.
He said that he had been mailing notifications for four years.  Name - Timothy Howard.
I thought this needed clearing up and asked him to send me a letter stating what all this was about.
He then sent me this questionable letter from Goldberg and Maxwell LLC from a Faith Galloway.
He asked me to call him back on a different number - 414-431-5182.
Next he called my employer - now I know it is not legit.
I will not take his calls at my place of employment.  The calls have stopped - for now.
Where can I report this?

I received a call from this number and Ms. Black left me a message saying that they were filing leagal action because of a check I wrote in 2008 at Bank of america.  I new this was bull**** because I did'nt have a Bank of America account in 08.  I also had received a similar call a month ago saying all the same thing accept I got the wrote the check in 06. This lady was very unprofessional first she tells me that the message on my answering machine is rude before she says anything..no debt collector is gonna act rude when trying to ask you for your money..these people are scammers...DONT GIVE THEM YOUR INFO!!!!!

Anybody know how to file a class action lawsuit on this company for their tactics? I will join IMMEDIATELY.

Strange that my call from this number is so different from the above.
This was a pre-recorded message about mortgage assistance.  I pressed 2 to be removed from their list, then I crossed my fingers.

Who is this from?

One of my employees gets repeated calls from this number.  I spoke with Timothy Howell today- he wanted to know a good time to have my employee served by the Sheriff's department but could give me no information as to what it was concerning - just my employees name.  When I told him he didn't need my permission to have papers served, he got very loud and rude.  I told him NOT to continue harassing my employee at her place of business....then he proceed to explain "the law" to me!  They will not give a valid address - they want a credit card number or a checking account number in order to pay a collection account for an online loan.  Can we say S C A M ???!!!!!

I just received a phone call from (414) 431-4728.  Person stated they are representing Goldberg & Maxell, and the name was Mrs. Royal.  I was informed that there was a case filed and submitted against me, and If I do not respond within 72 hours, they will access my personal information such as employer, credit history and all personal assets.  I know this is illigeal, and I have reported in an online complaint with the FTC.  I also registered my phone number on the "do not call" list.  If anyone receives a phone call from these people, please do not give into their threats!!  Any legitimate collector is NOT going to threaten you with old or false information.

I also looked them up on the internet, and the company does not exist.

I have gotten calls from these same liars and they are even claiming that I physically walked into a location and obtained a payday loan. These people try to use these scaretactics to obtain your personal information for fradulant purposes. DO NOT SUPPLY THEM WITH ANYTHING!!